Wayfarer
by Terriana
Summary: It was supposed to be simple. The Titans would face off against the baddie, holler a few immature words, and bring the villain in to prison. Easy right? Think again. Everything's gone wrong, and it's not only the Titans who will face the consequences. Rated T for violence, torture, dark subject matter, occasional swearing
1. Prologue: Valediction

**Hey, so too many of my favourite fics haven't updated in awhile, and I've decided to fill my lack-of-fanfiction void with my own writing =_= Readers, please enjoy, but be warned. If what I have currently planned for this fic comes to pass...well, let's just say it won't be pretty.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or Danny Phantom, both belong to their respective owners, yadda yadda yadda**

**Enjoy.**

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><p><strong>o<strong>

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_In the lives of each and every human, there is always a moment of doubt. A fleeting instant in which we question ourselves, and what we are doing._

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_In the lives of each and every human, there is always a moment of thought. A slow of the mind in which we ponder the 'what if's and 'could have been's._

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_When we walk past a burning house engulfed in flame, we stop and stare. Not because we find the flames mesmerizing, but because for a split second we are completely and utterly overtaken by the fact that we can't stop it. _

_We can't stop the screams. We can't stop the molten fire from swallowing the little girl trapped upstairs. And it is in that escaped slit of time, that transient moment of heartstop, that we turn away from the fire. Because we are useless. Because we're afraid of the fire, and of our hopelessness. Because we simply, can't. Then, as the house behind us collapses, consumed by the flames,_

_we walk away._

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><p>"Clockwork." Danny hissed, annoyance biting into his tone.<p>

Honestly, why the hell couldn't he just have a normal day? It'd been going great. No, it'd been going fantastic! No ghost attacks, a kiss from Sam, and to top it off, Mr. Lancer had said he could retest. He should have expected this. After all, good days had moved into the non-existent zone the moment he'd stepped into that damn portal. He wasn't complaining. Just, sometimes he wished he could, y'know… have a break.

Somewhat reluctantly, Danny met the shadowed gaze of the Time Master, narrowing his eyes at the immortal's serious expression. They were in some kind of zone of oblivion. Nothing but white surrounded them, and Danny found himself blinking just to bring some other shade back into the picture. Clockwork, he soon noticed, had changed for the occasion. His telltale cloak was a dirty white.

"Nice outfit." Danny smirked. The Time Master was not as amused.

"Danny Phantom," Clockwork sighed, "how nice it is to see you… _again_."

The immortal looked weary, if not a little worried. He held onto his aged form, never once changing back into the smooth-skinned youth. His eyebrows were pressed together and his eyes flickered with something akin to remorse. It was with this realization that it finally dawned on Danny. Something was wrong. For the first time in… he didn't know how many months, Danny fell silent in front of a ghost. He was left waiting for Clockwork to speak, and the silence stretched on for what seemed like hours.

"I brought you here to apologize in advance – or regress – for what I'm about to do." Clockwork said finally, dragging a hand down his face. Whatever he was talking about obviously wasn't pleasant. The Master of Time sent him an apologetic look before raising his hand to point at, well, nothing.

Danny couldn't help it, he laughed.

"Is this some kind of jo-" he stopped. Where there once was nothing but white, a looming door hovered above the invisible ground. By now, Danny had sorta learned not to be surprised. After all, who'd have thought Clockwork could look tired?

"Okay Clockwork, whatever it is you want me to do, I'm not up for it." He crossed his arms defiantly, fixing a glare at the ghost. Somewhere in the back of his mind he was reminded that he was powerless against the Time Master's manipulations, but he chose not to acknowledge the thought. Clockwork sighed for the hundredth time, and shook his head.

"I'm afraid that you're wrong. I don't _want_ this to happen. It might not show but I like to think I have a bit of a conscience." The ghost allowed himself a small smile. "Unfortunately, in this situation I don't believe either of us can change the inevitable. You are needed in the future of another, and you _will _fulfill what fate has planned."

With this, the door clicked open, an invisible force pushing it ajar. The darkness swirling on the other side didn't exactly look welcoming, but before Danny could even grasp what was happening he was being sucked into the hungry opening. He struggled, oh yes he struggled, but it seemed that he was powerless against the crushing pull.

He wasn't even able to finish screaming the Time Master's name before the door slammed shut, filling his world with darkness.

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><p>Hisfault hisfault allhisfault.<p>

Robin leant heavily on his staff, shivering amidst the downpour of rain. The skies were grey and miserable, as if they too felt his hard melancholy. His team – or what was left of it – was crowded around him, trying to provide comfort for him even though they needed it as much as he did. This was his fault. No one else was to blame. He was the leader of this team, and as leader it was his responsibility to keep his teammates safe. Safe, happy, _together_.

And what had he done? He'd **failed**.

Instead of protecting them, he'd let them get hurt, God damnit he'd let _himself _get hurt. He'd let them fall apart. Now they stood, broken, aching, crying, because they weren't_they _anymore. No, the twisted piece of metal glowing a faint blue was proof of that.

Robin couldn't help it; he broke down. For the first time in years, Richard Grayson, _the _Robin, cried. Right in front of his friends. His teammates. His family.

At the sound of his sobs, Starfire placed her hand softly on Robin's back, almost drawing back when she felt his violent shivers. Concern clouded her already poignant face, adding more misery to the load.

"F… Fear not Robin," She said softly, weakly, "Cyborg has strength. He could not have commited the act of leaving."

She tried to keep her voice strong, but it ended up sounding like she was trying more to convince herself than her team. Raven had drawn her face into the darkness of her hood, and Beast Boy was shaking as hard as Robin.

The night did nothing to weaken the onslaught of rain, and the team huddled close to each other for warmth and assurance that wasn't there.

At the core of the group sat the evidence of their despair. It wasn't much, but the highly advanced little gadget told of a desolation that was all too real. Cyborg was gone. Taken by the enemy they'd failed to defeat. Gone. Lost. Kidnapped. Dea-

No, there had to be hope. Even if the blood splattered across the ground belonged to their missing brother. Even if that tiny piece of metal had been a vital piece of Cyborg's body. There was no body, nothing to ensure his fate. They'd get him back, no questions, no doubt. It was just a matter of getting through this qualm…

If they could get through this qualm.

If _he _could get through this qualm.

He had to be strong for them. A team was nothing without their leader.

_But,_ Robin shuddered, _a leader is nothing without his team_.

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><p>A very grave Clockwork entered his time dwelling looking grim. His eyes were immediately drawn to the hovering scene displayed upon the portal. An image of a sleeping Danny sprawled on cold cement, completely oblivious to what would be happening to him in the next few days caused the Master of Time to grimace. The boy, troublemaker that he was, didn't deserve this. No, he didn't deserve it at all.<p>

From the shadows crept an Observent. Though obviously unwelcome, it came to rest beside Clockwork, peering curiously at the sleeping and all-too-human Danny Fenton.

"Clockwork we know little of your intentions. You spare the boy when we ask you to eradicate him, and yet now you wish to send him to his death?"

The Time Master narrowed his eyes in response, appearance still that of an old man.

"There is a chance the boy will not die, though he may wish for death as an escape."

"But why put him through such cruelty? What happens in the other dimensions is not of our business, nor does it concern the Phantom." The Observent retorted, staring incredulously at the old being.

"Ah but you see," Clockwork sighed, "Soon it will."

The Observent frowned. It had been over thousands of years, and his clan still knew next to nothing about the Master of Time. Heck, Clockwork had probably manipulated the clan without being noticed, that was his specialty after all. The boy, Danny Phantom, was just as mysterious as Clockwork himself. Defying the laws of time, defying their judgment, defying nature in becoming a blend of two species not meant to be combined. The boy was bloody uncontainable. He shouldn't exist, much less be alive. Still, as wild as he was, there was no denying how useful Danny Phantom had proved. He kept the balance of good and evil on earth, well, at least his earth. The Observent narrowed his eyes, again watching the sleeping Danny.

"What are you planning, immortal." He hissed at Clockwork, realizing that whatever the Master of Time had done, it would most likely to throw off everything he knew about the time stream.

Clockwork only shook his head regretfully, slowly floating past the Observant and into the shadows.

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><p><strong>Well, on that [depressing] note... who wants to donate reviews to this sick, pitiful, needy story? I'll give you cookiesssss *waves cookie around<strong>

**Anyways, that was the end of the prologue and probably all the inspiration I have for this story. I don't expect it to do the best, but if i do get some reviews, I'm quite sure inspiration will come with them. Like I said, reviewers also get cookies. No, even better, Danny-Phantom-shaped cookies. YES, NOW NONE OF YOU CAN RESIST AHAHAHAHA**

**(Note to anyone who doesn't know what an Observant is - Remember the two dudes in 'Ultimate Enemy' that were with Clockwork? Y'know, the crazyass one-eyed midget things? Yeah, those were Observants [wiki it] )**

**(x.O)/) see ya**


	2. Heartbeat

**Um... hey guys? (Pleasedon'tkillme)**

**I could give you a million excuses for my lack of updates but I think I'll just save you some time and skip to the story. Terribly sorry for the length of this chapter- it's extremely short- but I figured you would rather have this than nothing. Actually, I think all of my chapters will be about this length; I'm more faster and more productive with shorter chapters.**

**Disclaimer: I own** **neither DP**** nor TT**

**Warning: Suicidal thoughts and dark subject matter**

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><p>In a cloak of red and black, he sat. The computer cast a lifeless glow over his face, giving him the appearance of a sickly ghost. Other than the screen, there was no light. The air was weighed down with a thick darkness, drowning out all visibility and what little color the room might have previously held.<p>

This was the way he liked it. If possible, he would wipe the light off the face of the computer screen, but he had to wait. Not yet.

_Haven't found her yet. _

He worked slowly and steadily; time was of no importance to him now. The team was broken; it would take more than a few days for the members to regain their senses. He'd made sure of that.

He guided the cursor, fingers flying across the keyboard at light speed. Newspaper articles, coordinates, satellite networks: they were just too easy to access in this strange world; they were too easy to break into and steal.

He was so close he could feel her, smell the fresh foreign scent that shrouded her body in a soft radiance. He remembered now. He remembered everything. And with that remembrance came a need so fervent, so concentrated, so bursting, filling, _painful _that it birthed inside of him a terrible urge to clutch his chest, rip away the cold flesh and check if that empty place, that abandoned, rotting compartment of shadows and voices, had somehow grown a bloody, shriveled heart.

Shaking, he locked his eyes on the screen and clicked, knowing that this was it. This was it, and godamnit this was what he'd been waiting for. Here, here it had to be – shehadtobe…

**Not found**_. _

N… not f… ound? No.

NononononoNO! He howled, buried his fingers into the skin of his face and tasted the blood. This couldn't be. He'd been so sure, so certain. So _hopeful._

The voices awoke, whispering and hissing excitedly into his ears. The shadows cast by the computer bubbled and cracked, growing grotesque bodies bent at inhuman angles. The noise, oh god the noise was everywhere, surrounding him, pressing in on him from all sides, _they were laughing at him. _

With a raw-throated howl, he threw his fist into the computer. Pieces of the screen and metal pierced his skin and the scent of open flesh filled the room, but he didn't care. The light was gone. The shadows were dead for awhile. There was silence.

He took a shaky breath. Then another.

_Haven't_

_found her yet._

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><p>It would be so easy to just… <em>fall.<em>

The cliff staged the perfect drop, and the perfect landing. The leader couldn't help but think how easy it would be to just surrender the control of his body, and imitate the clumsy grace of a ragdoll as he flew closer and closer to the sea. After all, he was a robin.

The ocean's waves showed their rough and unforgiving personality as they hurled themselves at the night sky with desperate hunger. The scent of the sea was sharp, the colour a deep blue. Cyborg's favorite and most hated color had been blue. He'd said it reminded him of the robotic parts that kept him going, but at the same time turned him into something inhuman and unnatural.

Robin had always desired powers; he'd thought that if he had a weapon that exceeded the barriers of the human body, he could be stronger. He could protect those close to him. But Cyborg had said that his powers made him feel different, like he could never truly fit in with the masses of people he regularly risked his life for. In the back of his mind, Robin couldn't help but think it was unfair. Maybe Cyborg would still be here if Robin had been born with superpowers.

The leader looked longingly at the ocean, and wished he could be selfish. For a split second he even wished that he wasn't a leader. But that thought was almost immediately brushed aside. What would he be without his team? It was a life unimaginable. The Teen Titans had become a constant, unconscious piece of his life, and they were irreplaceable. He stared down accusingly at the ocean. What had he been thinking? He couldn't leave them behind, not now. Not when they needed him most. This was what he'd signed up for when he'd created his team, and turning back was no longer an option.

Stealing one last glance at the inviting sea, he growled and trudged into the cave the Titans had made camp in. They'd fled as soon as feeling had come back to their legs, even if their emotions were still raw and their minds had been numb. It was an action that was unfamiliar to Robin, in all his years of heroics, not once had he been forced to retreat from his own home. Much less to a cave.

"Anything?" He asked Raven, knowing the answer before she shook her head. He strode past his teammates, heading for the small working place he'd set up in the corner. As much as he hated to admit it, Robin didn't like the cave for the sole reason of it preventing privacy from his teammates. Without the solitude of the training area and his room, there was nothing to protect him from the eyes of his team, and the desperation that was bitingly evident within them. Right now he didn't need the distraction of their questioning voices; what he needed was time and space to figure out the identity of Cyborg's captor.

Whoever he was, he was smart. Maybe even smarter than Robin, and that was saying a lot. Robin hadn't had more than a few seconds to examine the site of Cyborg's disappearance before his retreat, but from what he'd seen, the criminal had left no evidence or trace of his presence whatsoever. Well, other than Cyborg's blood.

Perhaps the part that bothered Robin the most was that no one had actually seen the enemy. It'd been dark, but not to the point of blindness. And yet the only indication that the enemy had been there at all had been unpredictable, sporadic flashes of white light. Then the cries of pain from his teammates. Ugh. Robin shook his head, wanting to erase the screams and horror from his memory. One hand seizing the chair in a death grip, he clenched his teeth and flicked on the monitor.

One of the most important things he'd learned in the years spent training under the Dark Knight was that destroying a trail was impossible. Sure, clues could be hidden; they could even be hidden to the point of invisibility, but never destroyed.

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><p>"Where… where am I?" The stranger choked.<p>

The boy looked no older than seventeen. Unkempt raven hair stood out against his pale complexion, and with his slim physique, the kid was practically a Robin look-alike. His body was rigid, back pressed against the cold concrete of the wall. He looked… normal, Cyborg observed wearily. This kid didn't belong here; if anything he should be passed out and drooling on a desk in high school.

The boy hadn't noticed him yet, which was a miracle in itself seeing as Cyborg wasn't exactly the small type. But then, the cell was pretty dark, and, the hero grimaced, when he'd woken up here himself, he hadn't been in the best state of mind.

"It's alright." He offered, trying to give some sort of comfort. The boy jumped at the sound of the new voice, eyes stretched wide in fear. He spun around to face Cyborg, tripped over himself, and landed unceremoniously on his backside.

"Dude," Cyborg grinned, "I'm not _that _scary, am I?"

Slowly, as was standard protocol, the boy's eyes roamed over Cyborg's body, taking in the artificial parts in a mixture of awe and fear. The hero merely sat and waited, this is what he'd expected after all. It wasn't everyday someone got to see a real live half-robot.

"Ah, sorry," the boy said finally, breaking the silence with an uncomfortable chuckle, "Thought you were someone else."

Before Cyborg could question him the kid turned his attention to his wrists, or rather, what bound his wrists. Strange glowing handcuffs bit into the boy's arms, bearing resemblance to the restraints Cyborg had found on Starfire the day the Titans had formed. He heard the boy curse under his breath and pull at the handcuffs to no avail. For a moment, fear flooded the boy's expression, but then it was gone, replaced by a cool, collected gaze. He looked up to meet Cyborg's stare.

"How long have you been here." No emotion. The boy's face was unreadable, though Cyborg was certain the fear was still there, hidden away. The resemblance to Robin was almost creepy.

"I don't really… know. Twenty, thirty days? There's no way of knowing anything in here." Here, the anonymous place where he'd been held captive by his unknown attacker. Here, the place where nightmares pummeled his skull over and over again until he would finally jerk awake, sobbing and gripping his burning skull with trembling fingers. Here, the place where hours and days melted together and slipped easily through his fingers.

The boy sighed, closing his eyes and letting his head fall backwards against the wall as his whole body went slack.

"We will get out of here." Cyborg said quietly, and he was rewarded with a bitter smile from the boy.

"I don't know about that. Whoever made these," the boy shook his handcuffs, "is a genius."

"What makes ya so sure?"

"Let's just say that I had a pretty reliable escape route, aaaaand I just lost access to it." He threw Cyborg a childish grin. "I'm Danny by the way. I'd offer you a hand but… I'm in a bit of a bind."

"Victor," the half-robot smiled halfheartedly, "But you can call me Cyborg."

It felt good. Having someone there felt good, even if Danny was a stranger. The sick, green paint of the empty room had been the only thing to occupy his vision for a long, long time, and just taking in the sight of Danny's blue eyes and ragged T-shirt provided a comfort that had long since become foreign and unfamiliar.

"So how'd you get stuck in here?" Danny asked.

Cyborg shook his head sadly, chuckling. "Oh the usual. Went up against a baddie. Got pwned by said baddie. I wake up and I'm here." He shrugged, "I don't know why he's taken me. If it's to get at my team or somethin', he'll never succeed. The Teen Titans don't go down so easily."

"The Teen Titans…" Danny echoed, "You had a team?"

"_Have._ I _have_ a team. I'm not gone just yet y'know." He corrected, "But yeah, they're still out there. The worst part right now isn't all this," he gestured to the room around them, "It's knowing I can't do anything to help them."

Danny frowned and stumbled over to Cyborg, collapsing at his side.

"I have two friends. I guess they're sort of my team. And I've left them alone to face off against who knows what." He sighed, "I'm still trying to figure out why I'm here. Clockw – someone decided to screw around with my life."

Despite himself, Cyborg couldn't help but relish the sound of Danny's voice bouncing off the walls. There was a person talking to him, relating to him, and just those mere facts were enough to send him up in a cloud of euphoria. A part of him reasoned that this might be a trick, a hallucination, or maybe it was even a traitor planted by Cyborg's mysterious kidnapper. But he brushed it off, just wanting to take in the feeling of not being alone. This was a reminder that there were still people out there, humans who needed saving. A team in danger.

Danny nudged him, eyes glued to the technology making up half of Cyborg's body.

"You a mechanic?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Danny smirked suddenly, a predatory grin stretching itself across his face. He raised his bound hands, and waved the restraining device in front of Cyborg's eyes.

"Take these off, and I'll get us out of here."

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><p><em><strong>o<strong>_

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_Heartbeat._

_Sometimes, silence becomes a poison. It seeps into our veins in the form of absent smiles, mouthed words of pity, grey-faced ghosts. It is most evident when we are alone, for that is the time when we are most vulnerable. _

_When we are alone, there is no one there to hold us close and shield us away from it; there is no one to press soft lips to our ears and whisper the silence away._

_When we are alone, the only thing that fends off that monstrous, suffocating silence is the soft thrum of our heartbeat._

_And sometimes_

_Not even a heartbeat can stop the silence from devouring us whole._

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><p><strong>*Throws Danny Phantom cookies at everyone<strong>

**YOU GUYS ARE DA BEST FOR REVIEWING AND STORY ALERTING AND ALL THAT STUFF I LOVE YOU ALL. Your reviews keep me writing and I really really appreciate the feedback so I cannot thank you enough. Constructive criticism is always welcome ;) It's summer now, which means more time, which means more writing, which means faster updating, so I'll (hopefully) see y'all soon!**


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